Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) had too much power and too high of a work rate for WBA super middleweight champion (22-1-1, 12 KOs) in stopping him in the 5th round on Saturday night Baden-Arena in Offenburg, Germany.
Fielding, 30, knocked Zeuge down with a left to the body in the 5th. Zeuge’s corner chose to throw in the towel while he was still down. Zeuge had been exhausted and hurt since the 4th. He couldn’t handle the nonstop uppercuts and hooks that Fielding was hitting him with. Zeuge was doing fine in the first three rounds. However, the fight suddenly became one-sided when Fielding increased his work rate in the 4th.
Zeuge immediately backed up to the ropes and took shot after shot from Fielding. It was like watching a taller version of a prime Antonio Margarito with the way that he was hitting Zeuge with continuous punches to the head and body. Fielding wasn’t loading up on his punches. It looked like he was focusing on throwing as many punches as he could to wear Zeuge down. It worked great. Zeuge did the best he could to block as many hooks and uppercuts from Fielding as possible, but it was no use. There were too many incoming shots for him to stop them all.
Immediately after the fight, Fielding went outside to celebrate his victory. He then came back into the ring and was swarmed by his training team in celebration.
“It feels amazing,” said Fielding after the fight. “The fact I’ve come to his backyard and stopped him. I’ve been listening to my trainer Jamie Moore and everything he said was on point. I broke him down and Jamie said let’s see where he is after six.”
Whatever Fielding’s trainer told him after round 3, it worked. He was a different fighter entirely in round 4 in comparison to the first three rounds. Fielding was hitting Zeuge with a rain of shots in the 4th, and it immediately became a rout. Zeuge was still landing shots here and there, but he was getting with way too many punches from Fielding for him to last long. You could see the energy drain from Zeuge’s body by the last 20 seconds of round 4. He looked like a battery that was completely drained.
“I saw he was tiring early and he wasn’t firing back at me. I countered him and made him miss, and I felt really fit in there,” Fielding said. “I’d love to defend it in Liverpool – there’s a rematch clause but I can’t see him wanting to fight me again.”
The way Fielding looked tonight, he’ll knockout Zeuge in the rematch even easier than he did tonight. Fielding has Zeuge’s number. Zeuge is obviously going to insist on getting a rematch, but I don’t think it’s going to end too well for him. Zeuge is too weak, too small and too limited in his work rate to handle the offensive fire power of Fielding. This kind of thing was always going to happen as soon as Zeuge fought a decent super middleweight with size and punching power. It was just surprising that Fielding was the guy to expose Zeuge.
With his new World Boxing Association in his possession, Fielding will likely go after the winner of the George Groves vs. Callum Smith fight.
